Pretty much all I do here is sit and look at what humanity’s overall problems seem to be and find different ways to point at those problems and talk about them.
The longer I do this, the clearer it becomes that there isn’t actually any separation between the struggle of our species to find a sane way of operating on this planet, and the struggle of the individual to find inner peace. It’s all one unified network of delusion, with threads tracing all the way up to the largest power structures in the world and all the way down into the innermost psyche of every individual.
The deluded psychological fixations of identification, fear and insecurity which drive our personal sufferings are also used by the powerful to manipulate the masses into believing establishment-generated narratives, creating a kind of fractal pattern in which the unhealthiness of the whole resembles in shape and movement the unhealthiness of the individuals who comprise it.
Because this fractal delusion network is a unified whole stretching from the innermost recesses of the individual mind to the outermost reaches of transnational power, any attempt to heal it on any level is also part of an indivisible whole as well. In the same way you can’t separate the action of an individual antibody attacking an individual pathogen from the overall recovery of the entire immune system from a sickness in the body, you can’t separate any personal endeavor to free oneself of any kind of interior misunderstanding from the overall struggle of our species to find a healthy way of relating to each other and to our ecosystem.
For this reason, a humanity that has achieved full mental health will have the same quality as an individual who has achieved full mental health: life minus narrative.
Propaganda Narratives Are Custom-Made For Each Ideological Echo Chamber
"Every political sector has been given a custom-made reason to hate Assange by the narrative management network whose sole interest is imprisoning a journalist for telling the truth."https://t.co/jI6VjrT2PJ
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) November 6, 2019
I touched on life minus narrative a bit in my last article, talking about how you can gain a lot of clarity into what’s really going on in the world by “muting” the narrative soundtrack about what’s happening and just looking at what’s actually happening. The narratives we’re being fed across the political spectrum tell us the US needs a military presence in Syria because of humanitarian concerns, because of ISIS, because of Kurds, because of chemical weapons, because of Iran, because of Russia, because of oil, but without all those “because” narratives there’s just the US having a military presence in Syria; this tells you what it’s really about. The narratives we’re fed about Julian Assange’s imprisonment and pending extradition tell us Assange needs to be locked up because he’s a hacker, because he’s a Russian agent, because he’s a rapist, because he’s a fascist, but without all those “because” narratives there’s just a leak publisher being locked in prison; this tells you what it’s really about.
By life minus narrative I mean the ability to look at life without all the stories about life. Your life minus narrative right in this instant, for example, consists of little more than a pair of eyes gliding over this text, the feel of whatever surface upon which you are sitting, standing or lying, the feeling of whatever device you’re holding, and the sensation of air going in and out of your respiratory system. Everything else, from your name to your personal history to your belief system to how you got to the room you’re in right now, consists of mental narrative.
Full psychological health means having the ability to be in the present moment without any mental narratives. It doesn’t mean you lose the ability to have mental narratives, it just means they don’t babble incessantly without your permission and suck you into belief in the stories they each tell. Narrative becomes a tool you can pick up when it’s useful and set back down when you’re done, so if someone asks you your name and date of birth you can instantly tell them, and if they ask how to get to the supermarket you can easily give them directions, and then when you’re done you go right back into the present moment without any mental narrative arising unbidden to control your experience.
Humanity’s movement into full psychological health, if we ever get there, will look very much the same: as a collective we’ll stop buying into the narratives we’re being fed, and we’ll start seeing things as they are without the narrative overlay. And from there we can use the power of our numbers to force a change into a wholesome relationship with each other and our environment.
You can catch a glimpse of what this will look like for yourself right now. Ignore all the narratives about why things need to be as they are, and you simply see things as they are: resources disappearing from the hands of the many into the hands of the few, weapons of war being spread around the globe, journalists locked in cages for telling the truth, increasing surveillance, increasing police militarization, increasing imprisonment, increasing censorship. That’s world minus narrative. That’s what’s real.
This is what we’re collectively striving to open our eyes to. I don’t know if we’ll make it or not, but if humanity exists on the other side of the drastic changes that are coming in the near future, it will be because we managed to open our eyes in this way.
_________________________
Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, checking out my podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following me on Steemit, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone, or my previous book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
67 responses to “Life Minus Narrative”
Is the problem that we have narrative, or is the problem that we are being deliberately fed false narratives? I don’t see narrative as a problem if it is based on truth. But when our world is led by powerful sociopaths determined to deceive us with many false narratives, I would suggest that the powerful sociopaths are the problem, not the narratives. Conspiring powerful sociopaths are the source of the false narratives. They are the root problem. Solve that problem and the plethora of false narratives will also be solved.
The US government through illegal wars, has murdered hundreds of thousands of individuals, and destroyed sovereign countries with impunity, and yet their courts and their laws and their police state, are going to severely punish the whistle blowers who had the courage to inform the rest of the world of Americas murderous psychopathic criminality.
What kind of justice is this?
It seems the whole so-called justice establishment is there only to protect the many injustices that are in existence, and the people who are in power only want those injustices to continue.
It is amazing that there is no real revolt in the US and UK against our so-called laws, against our so-called courts, against our politicians, against our constitutions.
We have to turn all this injustice around immediately!
Today, here in Britain, the government honours the soldiers who fought and died fighting the Nazis, and who also fought in countless other unnecessary wars, which the British/US imperial warmongers have used to control, subdue, plunder and dictate to the rest of the world.
So for what purpose was all that death, war, suffering and violence, if there is so much injustice and criminality today coming from these imperial US/UK governments, obviously it was only to uphold and maintain their empire, just to keep it, and the retarded deep state billionaire oligarchs in coontrol!
I ask you, are the US and UK not as mentally ill in their power trips as the nazis were in theirs, are they not causing as much untold suffering and deaths, around the world, as the nazis did, in the name of their empire.
Wake up people, if you truly stand for freedom and real justice, one of our own brave freedom fighters Julian Assange is been slowly murdered before our eyes, and the world, in Bellmarsh prison, and another brave freedom fighter Chelsea Manning is illegally incarcerated in the US by power hungry psychopath politicians, and their fascist jackboot lackeys.
Your so-called courts and your judges are not really men of justice, they are just hangmen working for the oligarch deep state!
They are the murderers appointed by the society, in the name of justice, to take revenge.
Fuck the US elections, fuck this charade of impeachment, fuck Brexit, these have no real meaning, nor real purpose if we have no freedom, if we are already living in such locked down fascist police states, that rule of law has lost all meaning!
Remember, the moment any community of human beings loses the urge to protect and uphold the truth, it dies.
It loses all dignity and freedom.
Remember, the most unfortunate slave is the one who does not even know that they are enslaved.
Wake up now!
And not the fake joke ‘woke’ kind, with their fake ‘resistance’
No, that is just marxist slavery, just funny imaginary bullshit!
Never forget, the role of the US government in violence, murder, wars, terrorism, sanctions, embezzlement, drug-running, major scandals and the continual swindling of incredible amounts of money and valuable resources from sovereign nations, chaos, coups, and the manipulation of politics in South America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, in every corner of the globe!
And when the greatest power in the world, starts using such third-rate strategies, then it seems there is no hope for humanity.
What can individuals do when the US government having all the power, starts to destroy their individuality, their freedom, their freedom of expression.
They are forcing silent, simple people who have no business with violence, who are not politicians, to their absolute limit.
We must never be distracted from the real criminals in the US and UK, or be distracted from bringing them to justice, all these oligarchs, politicians, who till now, have never, ever come close to being held to account in a court of law, the ICC, if only? or who have never come close to being incarcerated at all, for all their chilling crimes against humanity.
But it is coming!
Free Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning!
All pretense of objectivity within MSM was soundly squashed when Disney bought Fox without so much as a single eyebrow being raised by the FCC or Congress. Confusion is being scientifically orchestrated to destroy any and all faith in our current system of government, thus paving the way for a “new” order which in fact has been running things for quite some time.
Doublethink. A verb invented by author George Orwell which he described as being able to hold two contradictory opinions simultaneously.
Example. The US Secretary of State is celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall as a victory for Freedom while at the same time supporting the building of the American Wall to deny freedom (of movement).
And yes, while people who’ve consumed too much race-based propaganda might claim that Freedom of Movement is not the same as “Freedom”, yet the Freedom to live where you want to live is obviously a key component of living a Free life.
And its amazing how ‘the narrative’ accepts that and doesn’t even notice the contradiction. Don’t even get to see a cat step backwards and forwards again due to a glitch in the Matrix.
The music of the mind is just the music of the mind, and ratiocination is its happy way of self-pleasuring. John Stuart Mill expounds on inductive reasoning, causality and ratiocination; nice philosophical porn for the mind if you dig it.
Beware the noun. We exhaust ourselves in dredging up and rearranging sets of nouns without thinking, a sort of mental Sudoku that appears at first glance to be thought. Political Correctness is merely ordering disjunctive sets of nouns, and expressing feelings about them by simple verbs. Donald Trump is a kumquat. The previous sentence is an example. And also, the previous sentence to this one is an example. And so on.Beware the noun.
A) the sans narrative idea is powerful and it can’t be overstated or repeated too often
B) thanks for helping me with a title for my new track (in progress): http://thephantomflag.com/fractal-delusion-network
Avoiding the delusion of modern day existence is as simple as watching what they do, not listening to what they say. And, that applies to all of us.
https://youtu.be/fEsPOt8MG7E
One part of a series. Where does the narrative originate and why is the narrative necessary? Considering the potential of the human mind, who controls the narrative is paramount to the condition of the world.
It’s the fucking prick in the mirror, silly!
Passing along Jay Hanson’s thinking here:
http://www.jayhanson.org/loop.htm
The narrative is that political water in which we fish swim and breathe without even knowing it’s there.
We “live, breath, and have our being” within this water. This water is also like the intercellular fluid inside of our bodies and we the cells who live within it. We then form a greater whole, an organism of billions of cells and multiple subsystems with a brain (the financial complex) controlling it, and this brain has one single primary directive: to maintain and increase power (resource control). The narrative of the MSM which is controlled directly by the brain, is to support this drive. We are free but only within our “Overton Window” to express ideas/truths not consonant with the narrative, and much freer in that when the organism as a whole is doing well, can afford some laxity and disharmony in its elements…some deviancy from its narrative. As the earth resource situation tightens, and as the brain senses this, this window narrows. This window is narrowing now, and MSM propaganda is intensifying.
Wars are happening now and are going to continue and expand unless we deal with the earth-resource problem by transitioning to next-paradigm techs ASAP., but this is not happening fast enough. The resource drag along with the distractions and destruction these wars cause will make the transition investments that much harder.
Social structures and their support narratives form as a function of our basic economic life support tech + resource paradigm, not vice-versa. We have a chance now, but it won’t last for long, one more generation, to get our physical-economic tech right and then maybe we can also get our social tech right, but maybe it’d be best if the whole thing collapses and we are forced back to the way of life we evolved to follow…hunting & gathering, if there’s still enough resources/ecosystem health left in at least a few places to do even that?
This techno-industrial organism in which we all live now as components is a beast that threatens not just to destroy but replace humanity and our earth’s natural state as well, and yet our dependence on it and its current tech+resource mode, our oneness with it (even when we deviate from its narrative), keeps us from destroying it and even slows us from transforming it…it either self-destructs or it remakes us into something not really human anymore. Our basic choice is resolving down to becoming Borg (if the system transitions to next-paradigm tech at an even higher complexity level) or two other outcomes (if it fails to transition): going extinct or going back to H&G (but just for a while until we figure-out tech again?).
sigh …. as usual, I’m just a phish out of water. 🙂
Oh my. All that narrative. Puts me in mind of the “Cabinet of Dr Caligari”. Wipe away the dialog (narrative) and it comes down to … everyone is crackers. If I were a Buddhist I might suggest everything is illusion, or Is the concept of illusion illusory?
The only way to find sanity is to loose your mind.
Ms Johnstone some of your readers might like these articles;
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/08/un-envoys-grim-warning-over-assanges-life/
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/08/why-only-thing-democrats-will-succeed-impeaching-is-own-integrity/
Wow, Shocking … a Russian backed website prints a pro-Trump writer supporting the rise of Trump and America’s New Fascism with constant attacks on Democrats. I can’t stand modern Democrats, and I’m not a fan of the CIA (nor employed by them or their subsidiaries), but that doesn’t mean they can’t do one thing right by stopping Trump and his gang.
Valerie, perhaps I’m simply being “old school” here but if the CIA (or any other U.S. State or Federal Department or Department Head) is actually involved in “stopping Trump” other than as openly and legally provided for by existing U.S. law or as provided for individually as their right from being part of the legal electorate in the form of each citizen’s vote… that is properly termed treason.
Caitlin,
This is what makes you so very special among the thousands of journalists, analysts, PR professionals, and narrative managers relentlessly competing for our attention/distraction. Your countless hours of research, absorbing what comes through the Niagara of data streams, while also aware of your own being and personal relationships, in a relatively isolated situation, is very much like the practice of meditation described here by Ingmar Lee. In damn near every other byline, I hear the din of so much narrative noise as the writer, consciously or unconsciously, simply strives to select the most attractive, glittery, stimulating tidbit of narrative or angle of perception to throw out like a fishing lure, with the goal of reeling in the biggest audience, for whatever personal or financial reward they may desire.
Like those who busy themselves searching for and crafting the most attractive narrative to feed us, we as the audience, awash in a tidal wave of internal and external stimuli, are simply struggling to choose the most attractive narrative to bite on. As a retiree, I look back on decades of preoccupation and dedication to the ‘business’ of making a living, raising a family, and adequately educating myself on the ways of the world and the needs of human beings to feel comfortable making the political choices I was offered. In that world, “propaganda” was simply defined as “communist lies”, totally separate from “advertising”, and terms like ‘narrative management’ and ‘cognitive dissonance’ were hardly considered, much less discussed. Now, in a more cloistered environment, less cluttered by daily obligations, mainstream media, and popular opinion, I have had the luxury of time to practice the studied observation of the world, my place and my relationships within it. It has made me much more empathetic to those, including many loved ones, too caught up in the daily struggle and strife, to find and appreciate the understanding that you have gained, not by faith, but by practice. Thank you, once again, for helping us navigate that path.
It’s not a closed system-the narrative influences actions and actions create new narratives-How can you delete the narrative? That would be like life defeating evolution-attaining pure stasis
Crisis is an opportunity for the ruthless, especially with any type leverage. Locally gangs take over. Nationally you get further oppression. When one structure collapses something worse will rise from the ashes.
And “crises” can be inserted into the narrative – independent of whether a reasonable person would characterize a situation as crisis. See “Our brand is Crisis” (2005) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492714/reference
documenting how James Carville and his associates manufactured a narrative of crisis so that the American-favored presidential candidate could eke out a narrow plurality so that US companies could keep extracting wealth from Bolivia. It was later made into a Hollywood film (based on a true story) which I have not seen.
The marketing of crises is of course old hat in human history, but when the “target group” is small children my dander rises.
From “Big Little Lies.”
Caitlin wrote:
> . . . journalists locked in cages for telling the truth . . .
.
Words from one of them:
.
“You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can’t lead to a good conclusion.”
.
“There should be transparency of governments and there should be privacy for individuals.”
.
“One of the best ways to achieve justice is to expose injustice.”
.
“If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth.”
.
“Truth, ultimately, is all we have.”
.
— Julian Assange
.
Truth – Julian Assange
https://i.imgflip.com/3fokd7.jpg
When one understands the vast difference (in fact 100% contradiction) between the two statements
– Buddha was Enlightened and
– Modern civilization (beginning in the West) is enlightened,
everything will start falling in place. The latter kind of enlightenment (which amounts to a denial of the former kind) is now turning into endarkenment as its inevitable conclusion.
And when I refer to Buddha, I also mean Christ, Upanishad, Tao Te Ching, Genesis, and Koran (their inner, hidden meaning, not the misinterpretations).
Anon.
Interesting. “The Enlightenment” refers to a specific age of European History. The era seemed enlightened in comparison with The Dark Ages that preceded. The rule of the local warlords over physical life and of the priests over spiritual life was lifted, and the European societies did seem to advance, albeit slowly and unevenly. The English pirates, a mix of Saxons and Vikings ruled over by conquering French elite were slow to reach this state being on the periphery of Europe and far from the Mediterranean cities where it began.
The assumption is that western civilization built on this steadily and became more enlightened. But the story is really much more of one step forward then the counter-revolution by the people who want to control your body and your mind always knocks everyone two steps back. Of course, history is edited to forget all the steps backwards into barbarity, thus creating the illusion and myth of a march of enlightenment over time.
The English almost always fought against any enlightened change, instead favoring the rule of the monarchs. The Americans began as revolutionaries trying to create a classless society, but have now firmly stepped into the English role of working to crush all change and social advancement.
It is quite obvious to someone with gray in their beard that American society hit a peak somewhere around 1970. Hunter S. Thompson as the bard of the age captured it
“And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”
“
Anon, I would think it a long bow to draw to state that the whole of the West became enlightened, or even one person in it, – but what happened over that Reenaisance period was the introduction of a new Soul quality, called the “Observer Consiousness”. or “Onlooker Consciousness”.
To put it into perspective, the first development was the Sentient Soul, a somewhat unruly time, – a way of understanding that was the requirement for humanity at that stage to be controlled by the 12 commandments, or similiar in other cultures.
Then came the Intellectual Soul, probably it’s height was the Greeks, and the highest striving was for the Truth.
Now with that 3rd quality/development, the Consiousness Soul, the search is for the Good, which is not necessarily the same as the Truth.
To compare people trying to come to grips with this new soul quality with the Gautama Buddha, is, I suspect not that helpful as he was regarded in his own culture as a Boddhisatva, a higher spiritual being born on Earth with a particular message to help the Human race evolve. – they come, from time to time these Boddhisatvas, – there are supposedly 12 of them, each with a certain gift, – the next, the Maitreya Budhha, is supposedly due in the early 3000s, app 1,000 years from now, – should the human race survive till then..
Yep.
This book confirms the importance of own consciousness.
Kagge, Erling (2017).’ Silence: In the Age of Noise.’
Kagge Erling (2017). Silence: In the Age of Noise.
This book confirms the importance o fown consciousness.
Our controllers feed on the highs and lows of our emotions. Invisible parasitic archons that feed on the negative energy of humans. The narrative is to constantly keep the mind in turmoil. There are things unknown and knowledge that is forbidden.
philosophy (as a science of social analysis) and ideologies (as unscientific analyses) are one thing. psychology belongs to the ideological world, in that it is empirical in methodology and
without a philosophical anchor.
empirical experiences don’t necessarily lead to a systematic (= scientific) understanding. exhibit A: michel foucault’s failed attempt to arrive at an epistemology (= a system of knowledge) through an empirical (= experiential) methodology.
best to keep the line clear between systems of (social-historical) thoughts and psychology.
couldn’t agree with you more – living in the here and now has been a lifetime philosophy for me – of course I often fail but even succeeding often enough clears the eyes of illusion. I used to love a UK band Called the Incredible String Band – they were quite big time in the 60’s and a few of their songs became little mantras – all the better because they can be sung –
one really silly one is “this moment is different, from any before it, it is different, it is now, sweet sweet now” – it’s such a sweet tune and so compelling and sits so close to the surface of my mind it seems to emerge unbidden whenever I need reminding. It doesn’t take mmuch and it makes a huge difference
Tim, it was really the hippie mantra, and has a certain relaxing effect, but consciousness should not be submerged, we have so much to do, particularly now, the super rich have taken control of virtually all our important resources and certainly the Media to such a degree that they dictate Goverment, – which Government, and what it will do, with no freedom, and they are very Nasty.
If You step back from responsibility, I would almost, no I will guarantee, “every moment will be worse” – sometimes horrifyingly worse, sometimes a painful end.
– Unfortunately our Society has been taken over by a mob called the Neo- Liberals, the .001% who own or control virtually every economic event, the Government, the media, the factories, and even our schools, (at least in America, poor fools, but they are coming to a school right next to you as soon as they can ) I would suggest you read a research article, – the which if I have properly made it available to you shows that inequitable civilisations die much quicker, ‘who would have guessed’? Keep your sweet mantra but abandon the rest of us at your peril.
Time to wake up and Act.
https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0921800914000615?token=A2D36EAB7D8BDA0E7A7DCD878291F36F0475A0034F5180493F6F06F3E43FF05785F109D6BF9A418FB54E29ED455D7132
Cheers,
Geoff Thomas
I have become a fan. However, I wish that Caitlin would apply the “bullshit meter” a bit more thoughtfully to the “global warming” thing which is being touted as settled science with much the same propagandistic legerdemain that Caitlin detects elsewhere.
Hi Jack, could you please advance some science to disprove the “settlement’, – after all we have facts up the wazoo indicating dire consequences in the long term and even a lot of severe shit coming down right now, the which seems to be getting even more severe.
Looking forward to your relaxing ironclad evidence.
Cheers,
Geoff
Very difficult to prove a negative Geoff. However: Of course the world is warming, we just wrapped up an ice age about 10k years ago. If we are contributing, it must not be much, since we’ve been cooling the last 10 years or so, at the same time carbon emissions have drastically increased. Nearly all the “dire consequences” so far predicted have failed to materialize. Last but not least, even if we are the culprits, it’s a self correcting problem. Too many people = too much carbon = fewer people = less carbon. There are far worse easily documented environmental concerns from which we are being distracted, I believe intentionally, by the climate change panic.
Jack, that is not ironclad evidence, especially as I read that that last 9 warmest years were in that period you mentioned as cooling.
Although yes the carbon emissions have increased and as expected now we have world wide bushfires, extra- ordinary droughts, floods and cooling, climate going awry all over the place, I really suspect you are avoiding the major problem, not too many people, but too many exraordinarily rich/super rich people gobbling up our resources as fast as they can, – and which, as they own most of those resources, they can indeed so do, so as you have provided no evidence i think we can drop that claim of yours, except that you say there are far worse easily documented environmental concerns from which we are being distracted.
You should at least be given the opportunity to express in detail those far worse concerns than the survival of the human race and I look forward to your well proven reply..
Cheers,
Geoff
Geoff, one must take care to distinguish between the science of the problem and the marketing of the problem. It turns out that our environmental problems –which may well be real–are being misused to market fake ‘solutions’ that are really all about making the big banks and multinational corporations even richer and more powerful than they already are. That’s why they’re plowing so much money into ‘green’ advocacy!
Here’s good and thorough read on the Greta Thunberg psy-op written by environmentalist Cory Morningstar: http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2019/01/17/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-political-economy-of-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/
Seamus, I am sick of the dissing of a schoolgirl as a predatory monster, I recall when she first came to public attention sitting outside that building.
Sure others have helped her, ie her parents, tried to market her, – the bit coins mob, etc. but they have based their claims on a fallacy, that renewables are supposed to be free.
In reality, Renewables have only overcome Nuclear and Coal and Gas because, including storage, they are cheaper.
You need to look at the situation, there are two elements, – one the earth is being destroyed by fossil fuels which can only become abandoned because Renewables are far cheaper, ie playing the game, or we all die, and two, the people happy to use fossil fuels until we all die because they are greedy psychopaths but have to follow the money as that is their religion.
So, first problem solved, despite incredible opposition by the psychopaths, we may not all die yet, but we still have to get rid of the psychopaths and replace them with community govt, as I have explained elsewhere, or else the Psychopath .001% will do something else amazingly selfish and stupid and we will die then.
They are children, not nice children, but nasty destructive amoral chidren and the guns have to be taken out of their hands and themselves put somewhere they can no longer harm us, – and if we can be caring, each other.
“My Gift To Climate Alarmists”
https://youtu.be/8455KEDitpU
That video is a fine example of the pot calling the kettle black and the author comparing apples to oranges. Nothing to see here.
In the sense that he is exposing the “apples to oranges” deceit of the most salient statistical arguments of global warming advocacy, you are correct.
The effects of solar maxima ans minima on climate:’
https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia3/ciencia_sol108.htm
All these comments about climate change are a good example of the narratives of which Caitlin speaks. What’s really going on underneath it all – without the narratives and scientific theories? We, humans, are polluting the planet and causing effects we can’t fully fathom. People in power are doing more to add to the problems then they are to address the problems. People will find a way to sway science and make a buck.
Maggie, apologies, my reply was to an earlier post from an I think Buddhist, – why it got copied to your statement I don’t follow, however, I agree with your analysis and think it well and simply put.
Geoff.
Thanks Geoff. I admit I am not well versed on the issues of climate change, but I find the debates that put people in camps of deniers vs zealots to be a red herring from focusing on ways to address pollution. Everyone can agree that the we are polluting the planet.
I would describe it in a slightly different way.
Firstly you have a perception, from one or many senses, then you bring the concept you have to it.
To take the classic example of the grass moving, – you may have observed grass moving before and found out the wind can do such, so that will be the concept you bring to it, which may evoke emtions or thinking about it, a bit later, as thinking can only be about, so feeling is in the present, thinking can only be in the past, – which is why we are almost totally dominated by our feelings.
But to continue with the grass, you may have had the past experience of such movement being by a snake, so you will also have the concept of snake to bring to that percept of moving grass, and indeed all your life experiences can give you a wealth of concepts to bring to your every percept, and the more correct the concept, the possiblity of surviving, eg the snake, or that wind at this time of the year will destroy your crop, improves your ability to survive.
Some percepts require instant action, so you can only operate on the feeling, some require careful deeper observation and analysing, and that is another part of life, learning how to use that instant feeling based on the learning from thinking about, and training, etc – a whole world of discussion.
But how do you know? what is that magic phenomena that brings the right concept to the percept?
From all my studies, the answer of best fit I can find at this time is Intuition. – Intuition seems to be a part of ourselves operating at a higher level, – we can perceive feelings, we can think about thinking, trying to get a hold of Intuition however, seems to be a limit experience.
It is interesting to consider that much memory also is only possible through intuition, an example being someone says to you, – what was the name of that girl in our class with the red hair, June? No you saay, others offer other names, you feel you almost know it but it doesn’t quite come, eventually you or someone says Annie, and most will immediately say, Thats it, Annie, and details will come, – funny thing is, you all knew it, a part of you did, but you couldn’t just get it but knew immediately when it came.
Hey!
Still here Geoff; just allowing my blood pressure to drop back to normal after the uncalled-for onslaught by the CC deniers.
Thanks
Please, I am not a human-caused climate change “denier.” I am a human-caused climate change questioner. That should not be raising anyone’s blood pressure.
Jack, at what point do you realise you have to stop questioning climate change and start doing something about it? When everybody but you is dead?
Is there a hidden agenda that makes you deny climate change? – please get over it.
With all of the chaos in Washington,D.C. I have been asking on the Internet I am wondering why there are not new parties or unions or something being put together to form something much better than what we have now. Someone or a group of someones should be organizing right now because the time is right for such a movement to catch on right away. Just thinking.
Your idea assumes everyone wants a ruling class – a select few people to rule over everyone else.
I don’t want that. I see no need whatsoever for a ruling class. Purge that obsolete belief out of your mind and you are most of the way home to social and political sanity.
I agree Caitlin, from my perspective that Politicians should not command Armies.
How to re-organise society to make that impossible?
The French revolution had as a motto, – Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, – it was never actively effectuated, but after the first World War, Rudolf Steiner developed the idea further, as an actual division of function in Society, also describing it as Thinking. Feeling and Willing, or Spirit, Soul and Body, basically maintaining that Society should be based on the Human body, so Liberty, – Freedom, is the area of individual development, – the Arts, education, research, philosophy.
Equality is the area of human relationships, rights, laws, politics etc.
Faternity, or Brotherhood, (and Sisterhood) is the area of the economy, – one could argue that the economy is the management of the Earth to feed, clothe, etc. us all, in a manner that will allow that to be permanent, – you may have your own version of that.
He further maintained that although all three functions are necessary and mutually interacting, as these three functions are in the human body, they must have their own independance required for their proper functioning, – eg you don’t expect your lungs to think.
So this separation, unlike that in the human body, – which happens mutually and automatically, must be organised by us human beings ourselves as we have evolved/developed to the stage that that is necessary, as the older semi automatic habits are now causing major disruption/destruction.
For example, rights are an element of the feeling sphere, property is an element of the economic sphere, therefore it is not functional for individual human beings to have a right as regards property, or any other economic element except in so far as those groups physically working in the economic sphere deem it necessary to assist the health of the earth and the life upon it.
So if property can not be owned but only allocated to specific approved persons with the skills etc to use it as required, you can’t get multinational corporations, you can’t get spoilt rich kids inheriting factories employing millions, as the economy is managed for the best interest of all, by those with verifiably the most relevant skills.
You also can’t get the economy controlling the Rights sphere, because the economy has no place for rights, except for say work and health safety, etc. for workers, so you can’t get politicians having any influence on the economic sphere, as they only have influence in the rights sphere.
A good opening introduction is on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_threefolding
It is not necessary to read the books written by Rudolf Steiner such as The Threefold Social Order, or Towards Social Renewal, nor even to buy them, the overall concept is what we can play with, and is not set in stone, however they are, albeit requiring some legwork, free on certain sites.
Nor would Steiner himself, having died in 1925, regard it as important that every idea or even most ideas, in his books should be adhered to, as they were responding to a particular time, so it is only the overall concept that is really important, although if you are prepared to wade through 100 years old German translated to English, many good nuggets may be mined, if used in context.
This area is called generally Associative Economics, from the Economics perspective.
Possibly some ideas from the past may now work?
The Democrats and the Republicans parties cater to the rich and powerful while ordinary people are always ignored. The United States Constitution is also always ignored. All I am saying is there has to be a better way for the people of this country than the status quo.
So many narratives, those we are aware of and those that run the show below awareness. The hints to these lie in our emotional reactions to life’s events. Stress is another hint!
I wrote this the other day I think it fits with your narrative story.
https://andrewbell.online/stress-psychosomatic/
“There is nothing to fear in the moment, and now is the only real moment there is.” quote by Cheri Huber
https://cherihuber.com/
So far the comments arise from spiritual perspectives. All such advice for how to achieve … whatever we all want or need to achieve that isn’t related to material acquisition or success in the competitive world of capitalism, has been around for a few thousand years. Buddhism, meditation, present moment teachings, etc. I’ve looked into several of these and the one that made the deepest impression was the teachings of Krishnamurti and later of David Bohm.
I don’t think anyone’s gone deeper into the problem of what the hell is wrong with all of us than those two guys. K was an Indian teacher (he didn’t like the term “guru” because of its authoritarian implications) and Bohm was a western physicist who did important work in his field and later encountered K’s teachings, which led him to expand on them in ways that I think were even more comprehensive than what K did. It’s too complex to summarize in a few sentences. Most truth that is truly substantial tends to be like that.
Very Good; Hope someone actually heard it and internalizes it. Thank-you.
Dear Caitlin, I enjoy reading your articles and I can feel your desire for righteousness. I would like to say that being in full psychological health, that is being in the present moment with no mental narratives, is a wonderful goal for each one of us. A world without mainstream narratives would be a great leap forward, but would not address the main problem, the elephant in the room. A person’s primary mental narrative comes from impressions within the subconscious mind and no amount of willpower or meditation can remove them. Incorrect mind impressions (personality defects) at the individual level are reflected onto society by the rich and powerful. Also for the average person, our incorrect mind impressions affect all those we come into contact with.
The main problem becomes, how do we remove wrong impressions in our subconscious mind and thereby stop our own mental narratives, which then in turn makes all other narratives obsolete. This practical solution I find is missing from your articles to date. The world is full of people telling us what is wrong and what to believe or not to believe, but there is a lack of usable tools to fix our situation. How to stop the mind chatter, Meditation only works for the time we are meditating and it takes lots of practice to reach a true thoughtless mind. Wishing to be in the present doesn’t work, trying to stop thoughts doesn’t work.
The science of Spirituality does show us what works and provides a practical solution. To win over the mind requires us to make efforts at the spiritual level as it is more subtle than the mental level, just as when we want to improve our physical body we are best advised to make efforts at the mental level as it’s more subtle than the physical level.
Religions have muddied the waters when it comes to Spirituality, but true Spirituality is an eternal science that never changes, unlike material sciences. If you and are interested to remove impressions in the subconscious mind and truly be in the present moment, the tools are freely available in the form of the PDR process (personality defect removal) and related aspects according to the science of Spirituality at ssrf.org
Hi Simon, looked at ssrf.org, so I would like to tease you with a bit from George E. Kuhlewind’s book “The Living Soul” P1 – I think it might shake up your assumptions a bit.
Should you perhaps think you could learn something new, please contact me on wind@iig.com.au and I will send you a pdf of the whole book, – only 36 pages but you will have to work hard, However, not a big doco.
Cheers, Geoff Thomas.
.”Phenomena of the soul can of course also be observed in other people, but such
observations are not immediate; rather, they depend on the psychological phenomenaʼs
exterior forms of appearance. The extent to which the soulʼs movements reach
expression depends largely on the individual and his circumstances. Insofar as they do
appear visibly or audibly in behaviour or in facial expression, however, it is left to the
observer to penetrate the appearance, to categorise it, to interpret it. To that effect,
he can do no more than draw on representations, mental images, and experiences that
derived from his own life, and on a conceptuality gained through the self-observation of
such experiences and images of the mind. This leads to the question: Is psychological
self-observation possible? Is there sufficient autonomy, sufficient distance on the part of
the observer, as there is in the case of sense perception?
This question can also be put in another form:
Who-what agency of consciousness-is capable of posing questions and making
observations about consciousness itself? Strictly speaking, this has to be the first and
perhaps the most important topic for psychology and indeed for every science that wants
to understand itself-because it establishes the very possibility of such a science.
Everyday experience teaches us that it is possible to exclude a perception, or even
all perceptions, despite open, receptive sense organs: not to see, despite open eyes,
what is going on in front of us, or not to hear when we are being called.
Important and fundamental as this experience could be for a doctrine of the senses, it interests us now from a different and more general standpoint. For this phenomenon, be it brought about
involuntarily, through distraction, or willed through concentration on a particular thought,
manifests but an extreme form of a general capacity pertaining to normal consciousness:
the faculty to be attentive, to use attention selectively according to our will.
On the other hand, this phenomenon shows that without conscious and willed attention, little or
nothing reaches consciousness of all that the sense organs are able to transmit.
Conscious attention is always selective: we do not perceive everything we could
perceive-if we did, we would never go a step further in life because of the countless perceptible details at every point in the perceptible world. – Rather, through selective attention, we limit our perception to one specific segment. We ourselves, through our will, determine this selectivity; it is not fixed, as it is with animals.
– We can change it: first I look at a picture or landscape from the point of view of colouration, then I notice the gestures of the figures, then the total composition, and so forth.
The phenomenon of attention shows an autonomy of the conscious subject with regard
to the countless impressions to which it is continually exposed. This autonomy extends
from selectivity of perception to complete exclusion of impressions, during which the
so-called stimuli, the physico-chemical processes in the sense organ, in the circuitry of
nerves, and evidently even in the brain, continue to proceed normally-what is there to stop them?
Through this autonomy, we face the perceptible world as observers. Apart from extreme
cases, such as mortal danger, for instance, the perceptual world effects in consciousness
solely what this consciousness qualitatively and quantitatively allows.
Impressions exert no compulsion; they do not immediately carry over into action; thus, they are
not immediate causes of conduct. Rather, the conscious principle-”I”-decides whether
something is to occur, and what.
“…It’s all one unified network of delusion,…” YUP YUP. Thank you Caitlin. <3
great article – it seems so simple and logical
thanks for uncovering it from under the mountain of lies, fraud and psychopathic predatory propaganda
it reminds me of Homer;s Odyssey
I think that was one of the earliest spins – to manipulate sheeple to fear imaginary friends, what to do and what not to even dream about etc
And they say Homer’s favorite character was Odysseys’ old faithful servant Eumeus and in the introduction the English translator of the Penguin version says – because Homer loved Euemus so much – he is the only character he speaks directly to: “and you Euemus…etc”
I think it’s done to identify the listener with the best slave – so when Homer says you Eumeus – it means you sheeple the listeners should be like him – the most faithful slave
That was always my theory – and I love the book I’ve read it many times
Truth…
Great writing you’re putting down, Caitlin: narrative control, unified health of individual & collective psyches, life minus narrative = clarity. I appreciate the original thinking.These three concepts at least could stand longer dissertation if that would be compatible with the high powered style of your columns. But what else have you got? I mean would you want to shift to longer style and leave these wonderful missives?
Dear Caitlin, I’ve been reading your posts for about a year now and first of all, thanks so much for all your hard work and great writing! I feel compelled to comment on your most recent piece which states: “…Full psychological health means having the ability to be in the present moment without any mental narratives…” Well what does it really mean to be “in the present moment,” -which is, of course, the only and very instant of ones existence. Because we are neither actually alive a few moments from now, nor do we live a few moments ago. Every mental narrative is either concerned with the past or the future as it is quite impossible to “think” at this very moment.
My experience with Vipassana Meditation has been that the Buddha solved the problem of being there, aware and equanimous at the only and very instant of existence, and he was able to reconcile both body and mind together in this instant. As far as I understand it, -everything that streams into our existance via the sensual field, -ie everything that is perceived by our sense organs, is simultaneously expressed as immediate tangible, observable, experienceable physical sensations on the body. And in a series of instantaneous processes of consciousness, which are a) cognition -something has come to a sense door, b) re-cognition, -a grade, plus or minus is put on that cognition based on past experience c) a corresponding sensation immediately arises somewhere on the body -if the grade is a plus, -the sensation will be pleasant, and if its a minus, it’ll be unpleasant, and d) there is reaction, pleasant sensations will generate craving, and unpleasant, aversion.
The Vipassana meditator sits down with closed eyes in a quiet place (to minimize the stream of distractions flowing in from outside into the sense doors) and focusses the mind on the stream of tangible, palpable experienceable bodily sensation, -which is manifesting throughout the physical structure at every moment. And these sensations, in addition to manifesting as a result of external input via the sense doors, also manifest according to whatever thoughts are passing through the mind.
We can neither directly experience sensations on the body in the future, nor in the past, but only directly at the instant of our existence. And the crux of the Buddha’s teaching is to observe the continuous, effervescent stream of ordinary, tangible, palpable physical sensation, -while understanding its every-changing impermanent transitory nature- with absolute equanimity.
If a meditator maintains perfect equanimity while carefully, systematically observing these sensations, while understanding their ever-changing nature, -observing whatever pleasant sensations arise without generating craving, and observing whatever unpleasant sensations without generating aversion, those moments are truly liberating moments! This is when the great wheel of karma, –karma which is incurred with every reaction of craving and aversion- begins to turn the other way, with accumulated, misery-inducing defilements spinning off. Gradually, with practice the load diminishes, and ultimately for some such as the Buddha, the final defilement spins of resulting in total enlightenment.
There is no way to think, or have any narrative in this moment, but by observing the bodily sensations that arise and pass with every thought or external input, one can observe the true reality of this very and only instant of ones existence and use these sensations as tools towards enlightenment.
I hope you will not find my letter to be too prosyletizing. I don’t thinks there is any religion in it at all, but may I please encourage you to join a 10 day Vipassana Course at one of the many Australian mediation centres! You can learn more about this here: http://www.dhamma.org
May you be Happy!! Much Metta, Ingmar Lee, from near Bella Bella, BC Canada
Nice description.
Ingmar, of course I understand where you are coming from, Bless you, having studied all the old schools, the Bahgavad Gita, various Krishna stuff, Lao Tse Ting, – went to Benares at age 21, – amazing, the Tibetan Book of the dead, Madame Blavotsky, Ises Unveiled, lotsa Krishnamurti, Tao tse Ching etc – shared houses with a few Krishnamurti folk, – lovely people.
But what’s happened? in the 1500s, + approximately, a huge spiritual change happened, the Spirits of Form resigned, no more Hierarchy, and came the Onlooker Consiousness, and this enabled a huge change in Human consciousness, so the old meditations have gone, – not useless, but not relevant to now, no longer any nutriment from the spiritual world for Fruitarians, etc. Where do you want to go Now?
Problem is, the old ghosts are still walking, – Roman Laws in Western Constitutions, etc. how do we put them to rest? – not much time left..